Slapsgiving

It’s Lily and Marshall’s first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Barney has to deal with a looming slap. Robin wants to bring her current boyfriend and Ted and Robin must deal with residual tension since their breakup.

Contents

Recap

The episode begins with Future Ted telling his kids about a private joke he and Robin used to share while they were going out where they would salute whenever another person used a military rank before another in a sentence (an example being 'Major Payraise'), but since breaking up simply share awkward looks whenever someone does it. It's the gang's first Thanksgiving with Marshall and Lily as a married couple. Lily is obsessing over making sure it is perfect, Robin has invited her older boyfriend Bob, who is forty-one, to Thanksgiving dinner, and Marshall is terrorizing Barney in the days leading up to Barney's third slap across the face from the Slap Bet to the point where he has set up a countdown on his computer. When Robin and Ted are the only two members of the group to show up to a night of baking pies, they notice how awkward their relationship has become since they broke up; they have nothing to talk about when they are alone together, and are uneasy in each other's presence, creating a nagging feeling that they are no longer really friends. They fight, but end the night by having sex. Meanwhile, Barney begins to get upset at the notion of another slap, and Lily declares as Slap Bet Commissioner that no slap would occur on Thanksgiving much to Barney's delight and Marshall's dismay.

On Thanksgiving, Robin and Lily decide that Robin and Ted need to talk about what happened and Ted, Marshall and Barney have decided they must ignore it. Robin and Ted argue again and Lily forces them to talk it out. After the two discuss how weird it is to be around each other they come to the realisation that they're not friends, and sadly agree that after the dinner they shouldn't see each other again.

Later, over the dinner Bob uses the phrase 'major buzzkill', causing Ted and Robin to salute without thinking, making them realise there's still a connection between them and they can still be friends. Future Ted tells his kids that he had a great evening with his friends (and Bob), and that's why he takes them to Marshall and Lily's to spend Thanksgiving every year. Barney begins to taunt a dismayed Marshall as the countdown enters the last ten seconds. Lily warns him not to but when Barney keeps going regardless, she allows the slap to happen with only three seconds to go. Overjoyed, Marshall slaps Barney immediately sending him flying across the room before singing 'You Just Got Slapped' (a song of his own creation).

Later, as everyone tidies up from the dinner Ted notes there's going to be a 'major clean-up' making everyone unknowingly salute and despair.

Continuity

The episode follows up to Ted and Robin acknowledging in Dowisetrepla that continuing to hang out together after breaking up is "weird".

Lily asks that the Thanksgiving pies be made at Robin's because Marshall keeps eating them (which he attributes to his "sleep eating" disorder). His apparently insatiable appetite was first demonstrated in Drumroll, Please when he becomes obsessed with Stuart and Claudia's wedding cake.

Ted's newfound recklessness, which he mentions aspiring to in Something Blue (claiming to want to "get out there and have fun"), is pointed out by Robin. She adds that it resulted in him getting a butterfly tattoo, as seen in Wait For It.

Marshall emails the slap countdown website to Barney in Wait For It.

The "major pay raise" after the first year that Marshall mentions is from the new job in I'm Not That Guy.

Guests

Reception

Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode 8.5 out of 10. He describes the slap bet as one of the funniest running jokes of the series. Goldman was also impressed by how well Neil Patrick Harris took the slap, describing it as "like Biff Tannen taking a punch from George McFly". [3]

Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "After winning permission to slap Barney in a bet, Marshall renames Turkey Day in 2007. Slapstick ensues, setting the stage for "Slapsgiving 2" in 2009. Did we mention it's a real knee-slapper?".

The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 8.5 stars out of 10. "Who is Bob, and why is he so old?"